


It's A Hard Knock Life

by Mademoiselle_Milly



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: AU, Adoption, Dysfunctional Family, Fluff and Angst, Foster Care, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 05:05:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4947823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mademoiselle_Milly/pseuds/Mademoiselle_Milly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harvey gets an unexpected visitor on his lunch break which he thinks nothing of until things spiral out of control. And by things he means, his feelings and growing concern.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's A Hard Knock Life

**Author's Note:**

> This kind of just cropped into my head about 1 year ago and so I've finally decided to actually write it. Set before S5 when everyone is happy! Hope you enjoy!

His lunch today was late...very late, almost dinner really. So he felt that he was deserving of a moments respite from the office and therefore had allowed himself to eat his lunch in peace on a bench in central park. Of course, he wasn't completely away from his work, on his knee rested a file he was looking over whilst tucking into his bagel. At 5:30pm people were in too much of a rush to get home and park up next to him and so he was safe in the knowledge that nobody would be disturbing his break (plus the odd warning glare he gave anybody who looked like they might sit down was enough to put anyone off). He didn't usually take precious time out of work to have an alfresco bagel but he'd worked all through the afternoon and he'd just about had enough with Louis Litt and the rest of the people in the office. This was a well deserved break. 

Apparently life had other ideas.

"Watcha' readin'?" Harvey almost jumped out of his skin, _almost_ because Harvey never jumped for, or because of, anything. Harvey looked up to respond to the culprit hoping to shoo whoever it was away. 

"Nothing of interest to you, I'm sure." He stated sharply before looking around to see if anybody was coming to collect their child and take responsibility for the disruption it was causing. Unfortunately nobody was yet willing to step forward and claim their child and so he was left to defend himself against the small invader of privacy. 

"Well it sure looks interesting, you're paying a lot of attention to it." The child noted, hands placed on her hips as she looked over at the files on his knee, her long brown hair escaping the ponytail it was supposed to be in. "What's that mean?" She questioned, jabbing a finger onto the paper he was reading, or had been reading before he was interrupted. 

Growling, Harvey closed the file and tucked it under his armpit, out of the kid's reach. "Never you mind." He glanced around again and saw that still no adult looked to be coming to claim ownership of the child. "I have to get back to work. Where's your parents, kid?" He asked grouchily, standing and scanning the surrounding area for any sign before looking back at the kid, who was now looking at the floor, or rather at the sneaker-clad foot she was scraping into the dirt. He sighed, shook his head and began to head out of the park, file still tucked under his arm and the rest of his bagel discarded into a trashcan as he strode past. This was not his problem to deal with. He should have just stayed in the office. 

"So where'd you work?" He stopped in his tracks and looked down to his right, sure enough, kid was right there on his tail. 

"Didn't your mom tell you to never follow strangers?" He questioned her with a raised brow. Where the hell was this kid's parents?

"No." The child stated simply and began walking again when Harvey did. "So what's your name?" And before he could even answer she had carried on. "Brian? John? David? Ross? Josh? Aaron?" She paused to see if she would get an answer but the suited man just kept his eyes straight ahead...so she carried on. "Christopher? Alan? Joey? Pat? Simon? George? Clinton? Paul? Bla-" 

"Harvey."

"That's a nice name, it would have taken me ages to guess that." The girl carried on skipping beside him as he marched down the street. "Do you wanna know what my name is?"

"What?" Came the gruff response. 

"Well it's Gabby. Actually, it's Gabriella but nobody really calls me that unless I'm in trouble. Which is a lot actually. But it's not always my fault, I swear-"

"Why are you following me?" He glanced down at her as he came to a stop at a crossing before realising that she wasn't going to stop too. "Watch it!" His hand darted out to her shoulder and yanked her back onto the pavement just moments before a car whizzed past, the horn honking as it sped by. 

"Oops." Gabby muttered, looking a little shamefaced. 

"Yeah, oops." Harvey grouched, walking on when the light flashed for the crowd at the crossing to do so. "Come on." He called as the kid hesitated to follow. The least he could do was get her home safely, she clearly wasn't equipped to be out on her own just yet, if he couldn't trust her to cross a road safely he could hardly expect her to find her way home, or her parents, or wherever she'd got lost from. "We'll be back at my office in a minute and then I'll call the police to come pick you up." He stated as he reached the other side of the road, what he wasn't expecting was the hands that flew to tug on the sleeve of his suit. 

"No! You can't call them! Please mister! I'll be in really big trouble if you do!"She let go of his sleeve when she noticed the displeasure on his face but refused to move further, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. 

Harvey noticed the threat of water works and stopped walking and sighed. "Fine, I won't call them but we get back to mine and you tell me how to contact your parents, okay?" This seemed to placate her and she nodded, a bright grin etching onto her face again, falling into step beside him once more but this time reaching up to take the hand he'd yet to slip back into his pocket. It took all of Harvey's inner strength to not shake her off. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Follow me and don't touch anything, don't say hello to anyone, or go anywhere but where I'm going, you got it?". Harvey asked the kid pointedly, bending over slightly with his hands on his knees so that he was at her level and could look her in the eyes. He only straightened once he got a nod of agreement. "Good." At that moment the doors of the elevator opened and he strode into the lobby of Pearson-Specter, acting terribly like there wasn't an eight year old child following at his heels. He quickly made his way towards his office, desperate for nobody to notice the little brown haired girl bouncing behind him, thankfully it was now just past six o'clock and people were starting to drift out of the office. "Donna don't get excited, we're not keeping it. She followed me home, literally."

Donna looked up from her desk a confused expression on her face momentarily before she spotted the young girl trailing behind. "Harvey what-"

"I told you, she literally followed me home, find out how to get in contact with her parents would you?" He breezed past her desk as Donna stood and walked straight into his office, sitting down at his desk and pulling the file from under his arm and went straight back to work. Leaving a little eight year old rather bewildered and staring right at Donna. Donna's face instantly softened as she stepped towards the newcomer, her hand outstretched in order to take hers. 

"Hey sweetie, want to get some juice with me?" The little girl nodded but was hesitant to take her hand. "I think there's some cookies in the kitchen too." At this the girl sprang for her hand, nodding furiously. "So I'm Donna, who are you?"

"I'm Gabby! I'm eight! Do you work with Harvey? What does he do? Is the job boring...."

And all the way to the kitchen, Donna had her ear talked off. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

With the girl sat on the couch, quietly drinking her juice and eating her cookie, Harvey could actually get on with some work, doing his damnedest to ignore the leech whenever it spoke up. The day was ticking on and though Harvey would probably be around for at least another two hours, he didn't really want the young girl to be here for much longer. They'd managed to get a phone number out of her but nobody was answering and it was Donna's sixth try on the line already and still no answer. "You know she might never answer." The young girl piped up, before taking a sip of her drink. Harvey simply looked up at her, raising an eyebrow as a prompt for her to carry on. "She might think your the government." She explained as Donna appeared in the doorway, a shake of her head indicating that yet another attempt had failed to get through to anyone.

"Look kid, we'll have to call the poli-" Harvey started but was cut off as the kid leapt to her feet.

"No!" She cried desperately, brows furrowed as she clenched her fists at her side. "I'll just walk home!" She fumed, turning to head out of Harvey's office and storm past Donna but she was stopped by said red-head. 

"You know you're address?" Donna asked sternly, crouching so that she was at the same level and blocking her exit at the same time. "If you tell us where your parents live we can take you home, I'm sure they're worried sick." Her tone softened towards the end, reaching out to put her hand on the little girl's arm but she shrugged her away, her frown deepening, if that was at all possible.

"No they won't be!"She raised her voice a notch, causing Harvey to stand up and walk around his desk.

"Listen, we're just trying to get you home to your paren-"

"I don't have any parents!" Gabby shrieked before she could stop herself, folding her arms across her chest and trying desperately not to cry in front of these strangers. Not that they would say anything about the couple of tears that slid down her cheek. Harvey stood there silenced, his eyes closed as he raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. This is why he didn't take lunch breaks outside of the office. 

Donna swiftly kicked into gear, shushing the little girl and pulling her close to her chest to offer what comfort she could. "Okay, okay but you must live somewhere? It's getting late and we can't let you walk home."

"I don't want to go home!" The child wailed pathetically in Donna's arms, her tears increasing and threatening a full scale sob.

"I know but either we take you back or the police do, it's up to you." She gave the kid a choice, casting a glance up to Harvey over her shoulder, her lips pursed into a thin line, indicating that he _would_ call Ray to bring the car around right away.

"Okay." Gabby murmured, sniffing more to try and draw back her tears. "I'll go back with you, do you want the address?" Donna smiled and pulled away, tucking the girl's hair behind her ears and wiping at a tear rolling down her cheek. 

"Yes but first, shall we get another cookie?" That at least earned another smile from the little girl and they headed off to the kitchen again, though this time with a little less chatter.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

Gabby was quiet the whole ride to Harlem, sunk low in the seat sandwiched between Harvey and Donna who insisted on coming along. Every sniff Gabby made caused Harvey to roll his eyes, this was exactly the reason he didn't have kids, he couldn't deal with the emotional fallout every time they didn't get what they wanted. He was actually quite glad Donna had come along because if the girl started up another tantrum he didn't think he'd be able to cope. Thankfully it wasn't a long ride home and they soon pulled up in an eerily lit street that Harvey was sure he wouldn't want to see in the daylight. Yeah, the kid definitely would not have been fine walking home alone, why was she even on her own in the first place? He stepped out of the car, reluctantly followed by Gabby as Donna climbed out the other side, he bit back a request for Donna to stay put, he knew she wouldn't listen to him whatever he said. All three of them quickly climbed the steps to address Gabby had pointed out and Harvey knocked on the door and waited. 

After a moment he could hear a door open and shouting ensue from the other side of the door. Gabby must have heard it too as she quickly side-stepped to stand behind Harvey, eyeing the door warily as the shouting got closer. Harvey peered down at her before giving Donna a look. "Donna..." He didn't like the sound, look or feel of this place and if Gabby's reaction was anything to go by then there was a reason for his uneasiness. 

"I know Harvey, maybe we shoul-" Donna didn't get to finish as the door swung open, revealing a stony faced, skinny woman, clutching a bottle of vodka in one hand and holding a cigarette in the other. 

"You from the government?" She half slurred half shouted, her gaze not even dropping down to notice the figure cowering behind Harvey. "'Cuz if ya are you can fuck off." She growled. She was about to swing the door shut when Harvey stopped her. 

"No, we're not from the government, we came by to return something to you." He said, bending down to scoop up the child currently clutching onto his pant leg. "But I can see we're only bothering you at the moment."

Realisation crossed the woman's face when she saw Gabby hoisted into the man's arms. "How the fuck did you get out here? You were supposed to be in bed an hour ago." She reached forward to take the child out of Harvey's arms but he swiveled and Donna stepped forward to prevent her from doing so.

"I don't think you're in the right state to be taking care of a child right now. I think instead we'll just contact child services." Donna stated sharply, risking a glance at Gabby who was clutching onto Harvey as tightly as she could while in his arms. Poor kid, she felt bad for forcing her to come back here. 

The woman grinned menacingly at the threat, leaning heavily against the door as she took another puff on her cigarette. "Silly bitch, I am child services, this is a foster home. Now just hand the kid over and you can swan off back to wherever the fuck you came from."

"Oh we will but we're not putting the kid down." Harvey retorted, walking back down the steps, Gabby still in his arms and Donna following swiftly at his side. They ignored the obscene slurs coming from the woman until the door slammed shut, Donna giving him another look as they got to the car. "Now what?" He questioned, looking to the girl in his arms who was still clutching onto him with a vice like grip and trembling terribly. 

"Home I guess." Donna shrugged and opened the car door slipping back inside. Well this had made the day a whole lot more interesting.


End file.
